Fairness Isn't Sameness

It is an open practice in too many large school districts for new teachers to hire on at one of the district’s at-risk schools, spend one year there and then get cherry picked off the transfer list to join one of the district’s affluent schools.

What this does is ensure that the most at-risk students in the district have the least experienced teachers and the least at-risk students have the most experienced teachers.  When Central Office is pressed on this (politely) by the principals of the at-risk schools, they are told that if the district doesn’t allow the transfers then the DISTRICT will lose good teachers to other districts.  This is of absolutely no consolation to the principal that is losing 20% of her staff ever year to her own district.

Since I’m throwing the stone, I’m obligated to provide a solution. Here it is, District...

1. Identify your at-risk schools.  For example, the schools that your teachers transfer from, not to.

2. Make the starting teacher salary at those campuses $2,000.00 higher than the starting salary at your non at-risk schools.

3. Every year that the teacher remains at the at-risk school, along with the district's standard raise, add another $500.00 to the original $2,000.00 add-on.

4. If the teacher transfers to a non at-risk school, she forfeits the extra pay.

Now, many will say that is not fair.  But it is. Any teacher at a non at-risk school who transfers to an at-risk school gets the initial increase and every year she remains she too gets the $500.00 add-on.

And let’s be honest, the current system already in unfair.  Because if it was, teachers wouldn’t be abandoning at-risk schools the first chance they get.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Illinois ASCD Fall Conference (Multiple Presentations), Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Fall AP Conference, The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Multiple Presentations) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Brutally Honest Discussion on Staffing Assignments

Now is the time when principals begin to think about staffing assignments for the upcoming year.  Let me help you with that decision making process.

1. Your best teachers have to teach the courses that are most important to the campus.  And like it or not, the courses that are most important to the campus are the state tested courses.  What this means is if 10^th grade English is the state tested course, then your best English teacher has to teach 10^th grade English, not 12^th grade AP English.

2. Your second best teachers have to teach the most at-risk/fragile kids. Using our High School English example from above, what this means is that the second best English teachers have to teach the Freshman who barely passed English as 8^th graders.

3. Your least experienced teachers have to teach the students in the best position to be independent learners, if necessary.  Using our English example, these teachers would teach the 11^th and 12^th grade honors courses.

Now you may be asking, what about my worst teachers? That’s simple. If you allow your worst teachers to stay on your campus and continue to teach students, then you aren’t leading, you are managing.  

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: Texas Association of Secondary School Principals Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas Elementary Principals and Supervisors Association Conference (Multiple Presentations); LYS / TASSP Advanced Leadership Academy (Keynote) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

The Attrition Plan Doom Loop

If there is a universal truth in school leadership it is this: Run away from “Attrition” plans for professional staff. At best, they stop capacity building almost immediately.  At worst, they throw the organization into a doom loom.  So what is an “Attrition Plan?”  Simply put it is a staffing plan that either balances the budget or pays for a program by not replacing vacancies.  So why is that bad?

Attrition plans are bad because they violate the Whitaker Rule.  Todd Whitaker states (correctly, hence “Rule”) that the greatest asset a campus or district leader can possess is a staff vacancy.  A vacancy gives the leader the singular opportunity to hire a better employee than the one who was in the position previously.  He follows this up with the truism that there are only two ways to improve an organization:

1. Hire better people.

2. Improve your current people. 

I’ll add that any leader of a learning organization that isn’t working on both #1 and #2 concurrently really isn’t much of a leader.

Now here is how an attrition plan throws a learning organization (schools) into a doom loop.  Let’s assume you have four teacher and their skill levels are distinct, giving you an “A” teacher, “B” teacher, “C” teacher and “F” teacher. If you lose the “F” teacher you haven’t lost much in terms of talent and the rest of the teachers can probably pick up the slack with little trouble.  That is how the attrition plan is sold. But this ignores the fact that you have lost the chance to hire another “A” teacher.

But real life doesn’t work the way the plan is drawn on paper.  Of all the above listed teachers (A-B-C-D-F), which one has the greatest possibility of leaving the organization?

The correct answer is the “A” teacher.  And the reason why is that your “A” teacher has the most options.  The “A” teacher is the one most likely to get a promotion and the most likely to get recruited to another campus or district, because they have the most marketable skill set.  And where an A-B-C team may very well outperform an A-B-C-F team.  I can promise you that a B-C-F team will not.  Plus, the more “A” teachers that leave, the more likely that even more “A” and “B” teachers will leave. 

And the best description of attrition driven C-F teams is “Self-Inflicted Doom Loop.”

Which means if you are considering an attrition plan, find a better solution.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TMSA Winter Conference; ASCD Annual Conference; TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); TEPSA Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); NAESP National Conference 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Getting the Job

I was recently visiting a secondary campus where the principal asked me to meet with one of his assistant principles who was beginning to get disgruntled due to his lack of success at securing his next job.  I agreed. When I met with the AP, I asked him what he was thought set him apart from other applicants.  He shared his background, which was solid, and he had some professional experiences that were valuable and unique.  As his principal had attested, he was (and is) a viable principal candidate. 

I then asked him what in his experience was hurting him in the selection process.  He said that in his district a lot of informal hiring power belonged to a specific Assistant Superintendent and his lack of a relationship with that person meant that lesser qualified candidates were being hired instead of him.  This may be an honest assessment, but it was something that I had no knowledge of, so I asked him what about in other districts?  And there was the rub. 

The Assistant Principal told me that he had not applied in other districts and would not be doing so. In fact he had an extensive list of "not's."  He would not move; he would not consider an elementary principalship; he would not transfer his children to a different school in a different district; and he would not entertain the pay cut that would come with a job at a smaller campus/district.

I looked at him and told him that obviously he did not want to be a Principal.  Regardless of how he believed the World should work, here is how it actually works.  There are three ways to get a principalship.

1. Be in the right place at the right time.  This is the Assistant Principal at a campus who inherits the job when the sitting principal leaves.  Though this is not a rare occurrence, you should never plan on this happening.  I suspect it happens less than 15% of the time.

2. Know the right person.  This is the Assistant Principal that has a relationship with someone who has an impact on the hiring decision.  This too is not a rare occurrence, but it is not as prevalent as many AP’s believe.  My guess is that this type of hire occurs about 20% to 25% of the time.

So one could postulate that 25% to 40% of principal hires are because of timing and/or connections.  Thin odds for an aspiring leader.  Which brings us to...

3. Play the numbers game.  Long time blog readers will be familiar with this rule.  Plan on sending out 100 applications, to get 10 interviews, to get 1 job.  Which means if you can expand the geographic territory you would be willing to move to you have a greater pool of jobs to apply for.

Work of all three avenues concurrently and your chances greatly improve.  Purposefully limit your options and the typical result will be that your first principalship is much further off than you want it to be.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “Look at Me: A Cautionary School Leadership Tale” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/lookatmebook 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Plans (Fundamental 5 Lesson Plan Tool); PW Lite (Basic PowerWalks Tool); PW Pro (Mid-level PowerWalks Tool) 
• Upcoming Presentations: TASSP Summer Conference (Multiple Presentations); Texas ASCD Summer Conference; ESC 14 Sumer Conference (Keynote Presentation); ESC 11 Summer Conference (Keynote Presentation); NEASP National Conference; The Fundamental 5 National Summit (Keynote Presentation) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Reader Writes... (Hiring Decisions - Part 3)

In response to the post, "A Reader Submits... Hiring Decisions", a reader writes.

"Sean,

I had a very exciting interview today. It was a site based committee, so I was hesitant at first. I started slow, having plenty of experience with LYS philosophy scaring interview committees. I was surprised to find the committee kept pushing me for tougher responses to their questions. I cranked up my LYS volume to about 60% and was concerned when I saw the entire group wince at one of my answers. I told the committee I realized I might have just blown it, but I gave them an honest answer. To my surprise they responded that they were glad to finally find a candidate with the viewpoint I expressed. I ended the interview at about 70% LYS intensity and the teacher group seemed very comfortable. I was afraid to go to 100% at this stage, but in time I think the school is capable of handling it. I should point out the high school is of a good size with a number of sub-pops, yet it is recognized, so they have something going on. I am relieved to find schools like this, as all I have ever experienced is dysfunction and a constant battle to get adults to do the very minimum for kids."

SC Response
As we have discussed before, your leadership experience has been in a narrow niche in our field. That is taking “broke to better.” That can jade you. Most educators are generally trying their best. What they lack is an understanding that they are the critical variable in the performance of their students. You on the other hand, based on your experience, are hyper-sensitive to that fact. That concept is frightening to schools in the comfortable middle, because if forces every adult to re-examine their daily practice (not comfortable).

The fact that you found a campus that was willing to consider what you presented is a good sign. It means that on some level they recognize that they are operating with a potential gap. Now it will be interesting to see if they want to do something about it.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

A Reader Writes... (Hiring Decisions - Part 1)

In response to the post, “Hiring Decisions,” a reader writes:

"Being the first with a solution to a problem is..." ...more importantly the BEST way to make a DIFFERENCE in the lives of our children!!!!!

SC Response
I hate to steal the mojo, but not exactly. The first solution is usually the best one for adults. Or as E. Don Brown famously states, "If it's good for adults, its bad for kids." It takes some digging to get to the best solution for kids. But that wasn’t the context of the advice, though I do appreciate your enthusiasm.

Most people provide leadership with problems, a few provide leadership with solutions and even fewer provide solutions that are personal agenda neutral (those are usually the ones best for kids). My entire career has been based on providing solutions. This started in the classroom and quickly set me apart from my peers. So that is a cornerstone to my career advice to all educators, look for problems (which few do) and create solutions for those problems (still fewer). At some point someone will notice and appreciate it

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

Great Advice - More Brezina Wisdom

I mentioned this as an aside in an earlier post, so today I will officially post it as great advice.

Early in my administrative career, I was concerned about the first year turn-over rate that I had on my campus. When I mentioned this during a regular status report to the superintendent, Bob Brezina, he quickly reminded me, “Didn’t I tell you to hire on potential, retain on performance.”

“Yes, sir,” I answered.

“Good,” he said, “get back to work and keep performing.”

Meeting over. Total elapsed time, 3 minutes 23 seconds.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn…

Chef Wayne, or How Do You Interview?

First, a disclaimer. In general, living on the road is a combination of the mundane, punctuated by random irritation. After the first two weeks, all illusions of glamour have disappeared. However, sometimes there are perks…

Recently, I the was guest of Chef Wayne, the Executive Chef of the Chart House, in San Antonio, for a tasting menu dinner. The Chart House is one of the top three restaurants in the city and the whole experience for incredible, but that is not the point of the story. Here’s the point. We were test subjects.

Chef Wayne was in the process of hiring a new chef for the kitchen and we were part of the try-out. So what is a chef interview like? At a 5-star restaurant, with a boss like Chef Wayne, it goes a little something like this. The interviewee is provided with all the fresh ingredients to cook a meal (it this case: appetizers, soup, salad, side dishes, main course, and dessert). The chef then tells the candidate, “Impress me.”

The interviewee then begins cooking. The Chef is judging him on organization, timeliness, taste and presentation. If the Chef is impressed, the interviewee is hired. If the Chef isn’t impressed, the interviewee hits the bricks.

Talk about being results oriented. What if we were able to hire teachers in a similar manner? "Here’s the class, here’s the lesson plan and resources, now teach a mini-lesson and impress me."

I would ask, what if we could hire administrators the same way? But, in some places we already are. The Leadership Development Academy (LDA) in San Antonio is a one year interview for aspiring assistant principals and principals. These aspiring leaders are working everyday with the toughest kids in San Antonio, with this mandate: teach the toughest of the tough and show that you have what it takes to move to the next level. And it works.

Some staff are being plucked from the program to fill leadership positions as they open up, some staff are on the “A” list to move up soon, and some staff have shown that though they were willing to talk the talk, they are either unwilling or unable to walk the walk.

Bob Brezina, taught me to hire based on potential, retain based on performance. Chef Wayne and the LDA take this to the next level; hire based on performance, retain based on performance.

So what happened to the chef who was being interviewed? In a unique turn of events, he was asked to come back and interview again the next night. As those of us in the dinner party can attest, he nailed the crab stuffed mushrooms, pear and goat cheese salad, lobster bisque, potatoes, grilled sea bass and chocolate soufflé. However, he fried the spinach. Evidently, you don’t fry spinach in Chef Wayne’s kitchen.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your Turn…